Omaha daily bee., 1887-03-04
'' BLESSED ARE THE POOR" :"
Some Facts in Regard to Lancaster County s
Pauper Refuge.
ESTIMATES OF THE COMING YEAR
A Boot and Shoe Firm Closed out
on a Chattai Mortgage-District
Court Doings-Capitai
City News.
TFRoM THE BEES LINCOLN BUREAU. I


poor and the poor farm of Lancaster
county for the coming year. The point
made by the citizen was well in order
Lancaster county has poor farm,
farm of 100 acres under the care OF the
superintendent and 80 acres that are
leased The farm is equipped with
buildings of all kinds, with machinery,
with stock, with all modern improve
ments. all Of which, including alleged
blooded stock, has cost the county thou
sands of dollars. Yet IN the face of this
fact in the face Of the thousands spent
to make a home for the care of the poor,
Lancaster county is confronted by
$4,000 estimate for the coming year. If
the years past and gone were uncovered
and the itemized account of expendi.
lures on this farm were brought to light
every citizen of Lincoln would be glad
to be classed as one of the common poor
if he could be assured of an equal divy of
the appropriation, but such would not be
the case, for superntendents and super
numeraries would pluck the plum to the
pit before the poor would see the fruit.
The Lancaster county poor farm is oper
ated under Il superintendent. The county
builds the buildings, plows the ground,
furnishes the seed, hires the help, buys the
groceries, pays for the harvesting husks
the corn, feeds the stock, buys the ma
Chinery-in fact is actively in the farm
ing business; but what has the county
to show for it? Up to the present time,
in the third month Of the year 1887, no
report has been filed in the county clerks
office showing what has been raised what
has been sold, what is on hand or any
thing of the kind. The county commits
sioners pay the man in charge of the
poor farm S60a month, but when the BEE
asked County Clerk Bell what had been
raised OIL the farm, what had been sold
or used or on hand the clerk said that no
report whatever had been filed for the
year 1886, and no man knows what has
been done on the farm. There is no
record TO show what has been raised or
sold, no record of the stock on the farm,
and guess at best is all that can be
found. 1t is about time that this business
was stopped. A landlord who would hire
man to run his farm and would not ask
and insist on report two months after
the end of the year would be put down
as wholly incompetent, ana it is about
time that the county commissioners con-
Quoted their business on business prin-
ciples. Every bushel of corn and head
of stock could be sold from under them
and they would go on in blissful ignor-
ance, allowing bills from q $4,000 esti-
mate. There is no record further in the
clerks office showing how many inmates
there are at the poor farm. No one knows
either how many there are now or what
the average has been for the year of
1886. This is fair climax of business
incapacity at the poor farm. An cX.ofii-
clal who departed from Office year ago
states that at this time the average mum.
Der of inmates per year ut the poor farm
was not over twenty: Consider, there.
cultivated, with $50 month man to run
1t snd all expenses met, is provided to
sustain the poor, and look at the enor-
nous expense saddled on the county
through the poor farm. In 1886 the
superintendent drew n salary of $720,
of the clerks Office show that there was
paid for help at the poor farm the same
year a total of 81 ,02O. paid in cash by the
county. Three merchants in the city
drew in cash from the county $500, pre-.
sumably for dry goods and groceries
for the. year, and the records
paid, coal bills paid, clothing bills paid,
lumber bills paid, furniture bills of over
e2OO, tannery bills, agricultural nipple.
ment bills, and so on down the catalogue
for 81, 900 or more, too numerous to
enumerate. Ali this great expense out
and not the the scratch sr OF pen showing any
this expense ought to have been met by
the proceeds of the farm, excepting per-
haps the salary OF the superintendent,
and on top Of it all, when the commits
eioners are in ignorance of what income
II any has come from the poor farm, a
payers for 1897. The board OF commits
Bioners are tit subjects to embark in baby
farming.
A BUSINESS FAILURE.
Yesterday the boot and shoe house of
Goodrich Bros. was closed by chattel
mortgage held by the Lincoln National
bank amounting to some 5000, Papers
were also filed in the district court by an
eastern wholesale house, representing a
claim of 800 or $500, held by them for
goods sold and delivered, the payment of
which was part due The papers in the
latter case go further and assert that the
firm is about to convert its stock into
Of their creditors, and that a large
Rmount of their stock has already
been disposed of with that
end in view. The firm has been actively
In business for some time in this city and
their location has been one of the most
eligible on the principal business street
They have certainly been enjoying a
handsome trade, which was no doubt
somewhat augmented by the large signs
displayed of selling out at cost
Their failure, however, or closing in on
the stock, causes ripple Of excitement
and it is understood that other creditors
were engaged yesterday in filing theil
claims in the proper courts for final set
Element
A VERDICT REACHID.
The jury in the district court yesterday
returned a verdict in the case of Olcot,
VS.. Williams, that has been on tria! fol
two days. The verdict was for the
amount asked and a consequent victory
for the plaintiff. The facts elected il
the trial were OF much interest ant
showed that when this j. Robert Will
Jams was one of the Butler county frn
of Roberts, " Westovcr Il Williams tina
Mr.. Henry f.. Lewis, in seeking an agen
TO make loans for him on farm lands il
that county, met these parties and tina
an agreement was made in which Lewis
was to discount some notes with chattel SO
curity held by them at | / per cent a month
In 1884, after Roberts had left the farm
this agreement was renewed at II pc
cent month, and a lot of the notes wer,
SO discounted by Lewis, but that insofa
9s his inyestment MIGHT he secure re